Mapmechanics helps InPost add impact to UK parcel locker proposition
Digital mapping and demographic data specialist Mapmechanics recently completed a bespoke analysis project for InPost which demonstrated that “that there is an InPost locker with two miles of all urban consumers in mainland Britain”. As Post&Parcel readers will know, InPost has built up a network of more 1,000 automated parcel lockers across the UK, and plans to increase the total to 1,600 locations by the end of 2016.
The company had previously established that more than 70% of UK postcodes were within five miles of one of its parcel lockers, but it wanted to determine a “more specific statistic” which – in the words of marketing director Tony Kells would allow InPost to “make a stronger impact” by “underlining the ease of access~” to its lockers.
In a statement posted on its website last week, Mapmechanics explained that it used “the routing engine in Geoconcept, the digital mapping and geographic information system, and Ordnance Survey’s Meridian 2 vector (scalable) road network for Great Britain” to “calculate the drivetime and distance from the centre of every postcode sector in the country to the nearest InPost locker location”.
Mapmechanics supplied the date in spreadsheet form, and also provided maps to help InPost staff visualise the findings.
According to Mapmechanics: “The result: as the InPost team hoped, it can now state with confidence that there is an InPost locker with two miles of all urban consumers in mainland Britain.”
InPost has also been able to use the data to highlight areas where more lockers are needed, and to generate ‘heat maps’ showing e-commerce hotspots.
As InPost is still rolling out more parcel lockers the company plans to go back to Mapmechanics at the end of this year for an updated analysis.
